Pheromones
by Flight of Phoenix Wings
Summary: Not for the first time, Doctor Holiday wondered why many of the other Providence scientists didn't listen to her; Most of the time, Holiday didn't mind it. Right now however? She cared because it was going to get her killed. One-shot. Holix.


**Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Generator Rex. I know, how sad...**

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Not for the first time, Doctor Holiday wondered why many of the other Providence scientists didn't listen to her-maybe it was because she was younger than most of them, or perhaps it was because like everyone else they were trying to prove something to the world. Most of the time, Holiday didn't mind it. Right now however? She cared because it was going to get her _killed_.

After her work on the pheromones Providence used to eliminate a swarm of EVO insects in China, a few of the other scientists decided to try to create a similar compound that could be used to subdue other types of EVOs. Doctor Holiday had told them it was a bad idea, EVO biology was too diverse to create a single formula capible of affecting every type of EVO the same way, even the human EVOs like what they been working with. So far, the formula they created still had the capacity influence regular humans as well as EVOs and durring trials it had unpredictable results-in one individual, it might create crippling fear, another could experience irrational attraction, sometimes it could create uncontrollable lethargy, or most concerning, violent aggression. The scientists had been working on isolating the individual chemical agents in the concentrated pheromone compound so they could target the specific responses they wanted to achieve; however, as Doctor Holiday found out later, there had been a small _accident_.

One of the scientists had dropped a vial of the unrefined pheromone complex and it shattered, splashing the liquid on to the narrow slivers of his exposed skin even as he inhaled the fumes (though _why_ exactly he hadn't been working under a fume hood Doctor Holiday never knew). The pheromone triggered a panic response and in his flailing fear he knocked over the entire set of test tube racks, spilling _everything_. It got on several of the doctors that tried to help him even as the fumes quickly filled the room and someone opened a door to the rest of the base. Other scientists and Providence soldiers were drawn to the area by the shouting and the panic alarms going off-in short, the pheromone spread like a plague with soldiers attacking fellow soldiers, people running and screaming in mindless terror, stumbling in stupor as though they were drugged or else running around like the inebriated retinue of maenads and satyrs that followed the Greek god Dionysus. Providence Headquarters was swiftly turning into a scene out of the apocalypse.

The other scientists had been working in a separate lab from Doctor Holiday's, thank God, but now she had put her own lab on lockdown to keep the affected people out and prevent the pheromones from entering the room's ventilation-she was essentially trapped there now.

She wasn't content to just sit there and radio for help while Providence's own people tore each other apart though, so Holiday was fervently working at her computer to hack into the control systems for the base. If she could just get in, then she could set off the sprinkler systems, wash the compound off of everyone contaminated, dilute it so it would be harmless and get the fumes out of the air…it would have been so much easier if Rex was there, but he had gone out with Bobo to go-something slammed against the locked door to the lab and Holiday spun, making a move for her desk drawer where she kept a Providence-issue revolver.

The banging continued and Holiday warily stood and took aim, not willing to chance that whoever was on the other side of that door would be in their right mind if they broke through. Then the bangs echoed into silence and Doctor Holiday had just begun to relax her grip on the trigger when suddenly a pair of swords sharper and stronger than normal steel rammed through the door, shredding the reinforced metal apart like tissue paper.

"No…" Holiday pleaded with the empty room, "…not him too."

With the grating wail of metal slicing through metal, the outline of an opening was drawn and the loose piece of door kicked in as Agent Six stepped through the gap.

Six simply stood there, swords out, washed in the red glow of the emergency lights as the doctor realized with a jolt that his usually impeccable suit was splashed with a dark stain that looked horrendously similar to blood.

"Six," Holiday whispered without lowering the gun, the Agent moving slowly forward into the room without a word or a sound.

"Agent Six, are you okay?" She asked. Six didn't answer, his shaded gaze locked on her as he continued to advance.

"Six-listen to me," Holiday commanded while her grip on the trigger began to tighten as she backed away from him, "you're being affected by a pheromone compound that got released into the base-I need you to stop," she told him.

But he didn't and Holiday's back suddenly met with a wall.

"SIX!" She screamed as he lunged faster than her eyes could follow, his katanas discarded as he grabbed her arm, disarming her before she could fire a single shot and pinning her to the wall, while at the same time kicking the gun far beyond her reach.

Holiday shivered as her gaze searched uselessly against tinted glass-Six wasn't in control of his actions and he was going to kill her. She always figured she might die in the field, or get killed by an EVO from the Zoo, but never, _never_ once did she imagine her partner, her _friend_, the man she was in lo-league with to save the world, would be what finished her off. So Holiday squeezed her eyes shut, preferring the dark of the inside of her eyelids to be her last sight instead of the Agent Six who was no longer the man she knew. Holiday waited.

But then, quite unexpectedly from whatever blow she imagined, a warm, calloused hand pressed against her cheek while the thumb of another hand smoothed the furrows off her brow. Holiday's eyes snapped open as she stared at Six dumbfounded. Agent Six was touching her face gently-although it wasn't so much a touch as it was a _caress._

"Six?" Holiday questioned, still slightly afraid to try to move, even as the thumb against her forehead moved down to sweep across her parted lips. In spite of as much as Holiday would admit to enjoying the sudden change in her partner's behavior, she recognized it had to be the pheromones inducing the unanticipated response, probably caused by increased levels of-

Holiday's brain abruptly short-circuited when Six's hand slipped from her cheek to her neck, his other hand resting softly on her waist as he leaned in, head tilted, pressing his lips as light as a feather against her own once, twice and then a third time before he pulled back and looked at her. Doctor Holiday had been paralyzed by the shock that shot down her spine when his lips had first met hers and now she could only stare at him.

"_Doc?_" Rex's voice suddenly crackled in her ear though the comlink, "_I'm in the building and I got your message, what do you need me to do?_" Silence answered Rex back as Holiday watched Agent Six pull away from her, retrieving his swords and fleeing for the door in one fluid motion.

"_Doc do you copy?_" Rex tried again while Six took one last look at the still frozen doctor before he ran out into the hall.

"_Doctor Holiday!_" Rex almost screamed that time and Holiday suddenly snapped back to reality.

"I'm here Rex-I need you to try and interface with the building's sprinkler system and set it off, the whole base has gone mad…"

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The aftermath of the pheromone disaster was one of those awkward, funny ones, mainly because those who had been under the pheromone's influence couldn't quite remember _exactly_ what they had been doing. It was hard for Holiday to say how much Agent Six was aware of what happened, because he seemed to magically disappear whenever she sought him out. Not that Doctor Holiday had that much time lately, since she had been assigned to help take blood samples to study the exact effects the pheromones had.

"It's always funny when you're on the other side of the microscope," one of the affected doctors had chuckled when Holiday had come around to get his sample, "still, I'm better off than Jefferson, poor sap tried to strangle Agent Six."

"He's lucky to still be alive," Holiday stated; the other doctor just shook his head.

"I'm just glad Agent Six wasn't exposed to the pheromones," Holiday froze when he said that, "can you imagine how scary that would have been?"

"That's not…are you sure?" She demanded.

"Well, I think so," he blinked, "I mean, I was out of it like everyone else, but he never came into contact with the compound, he came through the area, but I'm pretty sure he had his nose and mouth covered…wait, where are you going?" He called out as Holiday flew out of the room.

It wasn't _possible_, Holiday thought as she raced to her lab, there was no other explanation for Six's behavior unless he had been under the pheromone's influence, the other doctor _had_ to be wrong_._

Holiday did manage to get a blood sample from Six after they had been debriefed (separately) on the incident, but he had only stuck around long enough to be stuck himself and then he took off before she had the chance to corner him about what happened.

Doctor Holiday tore into the lab and snatched up the sample in storage that was labeled 'Agent Six', carefully but quickly going through the proper procedures to prepare a slide for observing the sample, since there was no simple test for determining the pheromone's presence yet.

Her hands were quivering just the slightest bit as she slipped the slide into place, barely breathing as she focused the lens. Looking through the microscope however only revealed what Holiday had already believed, Six's blood contained signs of the pheromone complex.

Holiday sighed as she looked away, trying to ignore the slight sinking feeling in her stomach. For a moment, she had hoped it could have been possible Six was acting under his own influence, but that possibility was too good to be true.

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Meanwhile, hiding in the vertical air duct above her, Agent Six let out a silent sigh of relief through teeth clenched around the vial of his perfectly normal blood. He hadn't expected her back in the lab so _soon-_it was a lucky thing he had made the swap so quickly, now he just had to hope the good doctor didn't find out the pheromone-contaminated blood sample she looked at wasn't his._.._and hope he didn't fall out of the vent before she left the room.

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A/N: Heheh Six…Okay, slightly random fic, but hey, it's my muse's fault. This piece holds the award for my fastest written fic, as well as being the first real piece of fluff (can I call it that?) I ever wrote. Leave me a review and tell me what you think please?


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